Harry Potter and the Court of Magical Brethren
by sprinter1988
Summary: Betrayed by the world of the Wizards, Harry finds himself in new lands and surrounded by great powers. Adventures aplenty await as Harry delves deep into the history of magic, but is there a sinister side to all this? And if so, which side will he choose? ON HIATUS!
1. Condemned

**No, I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, though I do own copies of all the books and films. The people who do own the Harry Potter franchise are JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros. and a few other publishers. Thank you to JKR for letting us play about in the sandbox of the Wizarding World.**

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><p><span>Harry Potter and the Court of Magical Brethren.<span>

Chapter 1: Condemned.

Harry Potter sat quietly in the chair, barely moving a muscle. Well he couldn't, given the thick, cold metal chains that bound him to the chair, and he was pretty sure that the two Aurors standing behind him would curse him if he so much as blinked at the wrong moment.

The members of the public that had been invited in to witness the trial were silent, almost as if they were trying to hear what the members of the Wizengamot were saying, despite the silencing ward that had been put up.

The only sound in the courtroom seemed to come from the quill in Rita Skeeter's hand as she feverishly scratched notes onto a piece of parchment that was more than seventeen feet long at this point. Harry was certain that she had noted down every little detail, from every word said, to every facial expression, and each was sure to have received her own trademark spin when it all finally appeared in the Daily Prophet.

Once it had the seal of approval from the Ministry, of course.

Harry kept his eyes facing forward, facing the members of the Wizengamot as they deliberated. Most of them were people that he had never met before, but there were some faces that he could put names to.

Cornelius Fudge was the Minister for Magic, though how he still had that job was anyone's guess. He had spent a full year fervently denying the return to power of the Dark Wizard who called himself Voldemort, then the truth of the matter was revealed when Voldemort and his followers broke into the Ministry of Magic building and was seen by many people, including Fudge himself. Once the truth was out, there were calls from all quarters for Fudge to resign from his position. Somehow he had held on to his position. Harry supposed that the Minister must have some real dirt on some members of the Wizengamot that he had threatened to go to the press with if they threw him out of office.

Dolores Umbridge was Fudge's Senior Undersecretary, whatever the hell that meant. She was also one of his major toadies (physically as well as in personality) and a complete megalomaniac to boot. The year before, when Fudge was trying to quash the rumours that Voldemort had returned, the Minister had posted Umbridge at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, under the guise of the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, and someone who would see to it that the school was up to Ministry regulations. What she was really there for was to spread Ministerial propaganda and stamp out the rumours of Voldemort's return. She took these orders to the extreme, going so far as to torture students by having them write lines with a blood quill (a special quill that used the writer's blood instead of ink and carved the words into the writer's hand), and in some cases she tried to find out what was going on in the school by dosing the students with Veritaserum, a potion designed to force the drinker to tell the complete truth, no matter what. Both of these punishments were highly illegal, and some, Harry included, were subjected to both, and on more than one occasion. Umbridge had even once threatened Harry with the Cruciatus, or Torture Curse.

That Umbridge not only still worked for the Ministry, but also was a part of the body that would determine his fate made Harry's blood boil. It was taking so much effort to keep himself calm and impassive. Harry suspected that the whole reason Umbridge was present was to try and get an angry reaction out of him. Indeed, every time he heard her voice he longed to hit her in the face with a bludgeoning hex, or better yet a Beater's bat.

Harry recognised only a couple of other faces. He knew that Griselda Marchbanks had something to do with the examination's body, but that was all he knew. She had supported Dumbledore a year ago, but given how Dumbledore wasn't supporting Harry in this matter, she was an unknown. Harry hoped she was a woman capable of making up her own mind, but if the was a Dumbledore supporter, she'd go along with his thoughts on the matter, as Dumbledore's supporters usually did.

Augusta Longbottom was the grandmother of one of Harry's schoolmates, Neville Longbottom. She was an unknown as well. This time last year Harry would've hoped that she'd have been supportive of him. However Neville had given testimony against Harry during the trial, and did not paint a pretty picture. Harry had a sinking feeling that he knew which way the Longbottom vote was going to go.

Amelia Bones was the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She was missing an arm and bore a nasty-looking scar on the side of her face; the end result of an attack by Death Eaters upon her person just a few months ago. By all accounts she had faced Voldemort himself before managing to flee. Likely Voldemort wasted time bragging about how superior he was, which allowed her the chance to escape, as opposed to her actually fighting her way out. Harry had herd that Amelia was firm but fair, though he had no way of knowing whether that was true or not.

Amelia's niece, Susan Bones, was another classmate of Harry's, though they didn't know each other that well. However, Susan and a couple of her friends had joined the defence club that Harry had set up at Hogwarts the previous year when Umbridge refused to teach them anything useful, and in the eyes of the Ministry, or Fudge at least, that meant that Susan knew Harry well enough to act as a character witness. Susan had been very truthful in her words, though that ultimately went against her. Susan thought Harry a good person, and said he was an effective teacher. Fudge had then asked if the group Harry had lead might be the beginnings of his own army, and that was where the truth had been Susan's downfall, though really it didn't matter what her answer was, as the Wizengamot would have taken any answer the way they did. Had she said that it could have been the beginnings of Harry's own army, the Wizengamot would've packed Harry off to the deepest, darkest, dankest cell in Azkaban Prison before you could say "Unfair."

Susan instead gave the true answer; that the club was formed to learn defensive magic. When asked why the group wanted to do such a thing, again Susan answered truthfully; they believed Harry when he said Voldemort was back, and Umbridge flat out refused to teach them anything remotely useful in her class.

That had not gone down well with either Fudge or Umbridge. Susan refused to back down when Umbridge accused her of lying, and in an odd way Harry was proud of her. Her words would ultimately do him no good, but that was the Ministry's fault, not hers. Had Fudge and Umbridge been investigated properly and then booted out, Susan's words would likely have been accepted as the truth that they were.

In the end, Fudge had ordered Susan removed from the courtroom and that her testimony be stricken from the record.

Her testimony may now prove useless to him, but Harry was glad that she had told the Wizengamot, and the gathered public, exactly what had happened at Hogwarts.

Amelia, however, was still a virtual unknown to Harry. He could only hope that Susan had learnt her honest traits from her.

The last person whom Harry recognised in the sea of faced that made up the Wizengamot was Albus Dumbledore, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot (which essentially meant he was supposed to be in charge, though he had mostly let Fudge run today's show) and also the Headmaster of Hogwarts School. A year ago Dumbledore was in the same boat as Harry; trying to spread the news that Voldemort was back whilst being public enemy number one, at least as far as the Ministry was concerned. Now, though, after the truth had come out, Dumbledore was back in power. Unfortunately he had elected to keep his mouth shut during the proceedings and merely spend his time looking very sad and disappointed.

Harry had realised about ten minutes in that Dumbledore wasn't going to lift a finger to help Harry. He suspected that that had something to do with the chief witness to Harry's supposed crime. Severus Snape, Hogwarts' potions master, and Harry's least favourite teacher of all (now that Umbridge had left) was the one who had apparently found Harry at the scene of the crime and raised the alarm.

As far as Albus Dumbledore was concerned, Severus Snape's words were golden, and it seemed that no amount of evidence (what little there was) to the contrary would change his mind.

Harry strongly suspected that he was screwed.

Dumbledore might be holding his tongue, but there were many others willing to spill the juicy details. Ron Weasley, who Harry had long thought of as his best friend, had claimed that he had had a feeling that Harry might go dark on them for years, and his sister Ginny Weasley had said that there always seemed to be something "a little off" with Harry.

'_Should've left that one to rot in the Chamber of Secrets' _Harry thought as Ginny gave her testimony. After that the betrayals had just kept on mounting up. After Ron and Ginny came the other Weasleys, or at least the ones that Harry had ever had regular contact with. Molly, Arthur, Percy, Fred and George had all turned on Harry. Bill and Charlie were absent. Remus Lupin was of no help, admitting that the loss of his Godfather Sirius Black might've been enough to push Harry over the edge.

That one had hurt.

Minerva McGonagall, Harry's Transfiguration teacher and Head of House said that she'd always had cause to be concerned about Harry's actions. Rubeus Hagrid's testimony was no help. No was Ernie MacMillan's (another member of Harry's defence group, who said he had suspected some sinister motive underlying the group's actions).

Most of the rest of the group testified as well. Many of them (Lee, Cho, Marietta, Michael, Terry, Anthony, Angelina, Alicia and Zacharias) gave pretty damning testimonies. Those who followed in Susan's footsteps and told the truth (Hannah, Parvati, Padma, Lavender, Seamus and Dean) got barely ten words out of their mouths before they removed and their testimonies following Susan's in being stricken from the record.

Harry noted that Justin, Colin and Dennis were absent; perhaps that had something to do with them being Muggleborn.

The only one of Harry's friends that was a Muggleborn to be in attendance was Hermione Granger, once of Harry's closest friends. She was not asked to testify, but then that was probably because Dumbledore knew that she would side with Harry.

At least, Harry hoped she would. He hadn't spoken to her since before all this began, and he didn't dare look at her now.

It seemed that Harry had for more enemies than he thought, and the Wizengamot saved the best of them until last. Draco Malfoy, school bully, son of one of Voldemort's greatest supporters, and Harry's greatest enemy out of the entire student body, did not paint Harry in a very good light. It is therefore needless to say that his testimony was allowed to go on for a very, very long time. Draco painted Harry as an arrogant, spoilt brat that sauntered around Hogwarts Castle as if he owned the place, breaking every rule going and getting away with it each and every single time.

Harry wondered if Draco realised that he was actually describing himself.

Either way Draco's words went along with the tale of woe that Snape had spun right at the beginning. And then, of course, there was one final witness to put the final nail in Harry Potter's coffin.

Dolores Umbridge had positively relished affirming everything Harry's enemies had said about him before adding her own master strokes to the tainted picture the court and the public were building in their minds of Harry Potter. She told the court how he was a liar who willingly defied authority, who refused to be brought into line despite all attempts, who put the lives of his fellow students in danger.

Not once was it mentioned that all of Harry's so-called lies had been proved to be the truth in the end, and not once was it mentioned that everything Harry had done in the year Umbridge had ruled Hogwarts was in an attempt to show people that truth.

In fact, Harry Potter had not been allowed to say one word in these proceedings, and it didn't matter now if he did, because who would believe Harry Potter, the little liar now?

Suddenly the silencing ward came down, and the tension in the courtroom suddenly increased tenfold.

It was Cornelius Fudge who spoke, and when he did, he addressed Harry.

"Harry James Potter, we the Wizengamot hereby find you guilty of the murder of one Luna Celeste Lovegood."

Yup, that's right. That's what Harry was accused of doing.

Believe that Harry's capable of that and you'll obviously believe anything. Harry would not have hurt a single hair on Luna's head, far less murder her.

"It is the decision of the Wizengamot," Fudge continued "that your wand will be snapped and your magic bound. You are expelled from Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, effective immediately, and you are hereby sentenced to one hundred years in Azkaban Prison."

Fudge was silent for a moment, allowing that to sink in. Harry heard a sob from somewhere behind him, and he knew that it was Hermione.

An Auror whom Harry Potter knew to be called Rufus Scrimgeour moved over to Fudge and he handed the Minister Harry's wand. Fudge held it for a moment, with a considering look on his face. Then he handed it to the person on his right.

Harry Potter would never forget, even until his dying day, the superior, gloating look that Dolores Umbridge had on her face in that moment.

The snap of his wand seemed to echo around the courtroom.

A man dressed in heavy robes and with a hood covering his face stepped forwards. Harry supposed that the man must have been an unspeakable. The unknown man drew his wand and waved it around in the air whilst chanting strange incantations. Harry had never studied Ancient Runes at Hogwarts. If he had, he might've understood one or two of the words being said.

There was, however, no doubt as to what the chanting was for. Harry could feel it.

It started as a tingling sensation in his fingers and his toes. Then the tingling swept up his arms and legs. He felt it in his head, and then it moved to his torso. Then it faded from his fingers and his toes, and they felt numb. Then his legs and arms felt numb, and it continued to spread like that, until he was just that; numb.

And his senses, sight and hearing felt dull. He could hardly sense the atmosphere in the room anymore.

"Aurors take him away." said Fudge, finally, though to Harry it sounded distant, as if it came from the opposite end of a Quidditch pitch.

The two Aurors who had been standing behind Harry, John Dawlish and Gerald Williamson both grabbed Harry by the shoulders. Harry barely felt their grasp, and he barely felt the chains slacken and fall off of him.

As he was dragged from the room, he heard a dim roar. It was the crowd; members of the public and many people whom he once called 'friend' booing and jeering at him as he was dragged off to meet what they considered to be his well-deserved fate.

And then something happened; something broke through the haze. It was a touch to his hand. He moved his fingers a little and found that his hand was in the grasp of another. He blinked and looked, and for a moment his vision cleared, and he saw Hermione, tears streaming down her face. She was saying something to him, but he couldn't make it out over the noise of the crowd, which was much louder now.

One of the Aurors shoved Hermione away and Harry was dragged on. The cloud over his senses returned as Hermione was swallowed up by the jeering crowd.

The Aurors dragged Harry through the doors of the courtroom and away down a long, dark corridor.

Harry Potter had a portkey to catch; destination Azkaban.

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><p>Hermione Granger arrived at her home to find that her parents were not there. She went upstairs to her bedroom, where she collapsed on her bed and cried her eyes out.<p>

Harry Potter was a good person, and there was no way he would have killed Luna Lovegood. Why couldn't everybody see that?

Hermione was dreading returning to Hogwarts tomorrow morning. It would be horrible without Harry there. Even worse; Harry's betrayers _would_ be there.

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><p>The cell door squeaked as it was opened, and then Harry Potter was hurled inside. His nose was broken, and he was covered in bruises and blood. The Aurors had taken it upon themselves to dish out some of their own "personal justice" before bringing him up here.<p>

The door shut behind his, and even through the haze that dulled his senses, Harry heard Auror Dawlish's parting taunt.

"Enjoy your murdering Godfather's cell, scumbag."

Harry quickly found the corner furthest from the door and curled up there, but nothing was going to protect him from the Dementors that were already gathering towards his cell.

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><p><strong>AN: So what do you think? Sorry to any Luna fans out there, but as you can see she's not in this one. Don't worry, her being picked as the victim isn't meaningless, it is important to Harry's later actions. Also, sorry this isn't an update for 'Damn Wizards', truth is that that story is giving me a bit of trouble, but I am working on it. This story might take priority over it though.**


	2. The Truth Revealed

**No, I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, though I do own copies of all the books and films. The people who do own the Harry Potter franchise are JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, ****Warner Bros. and a few other publishers. Thank you to JKR for letting us play about in the sandbox of the Wizarding World.**

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><p><span>Harry Potter and the Court of Magical Brethren.<span>

Chapter 2: The Truth Revealed

"Sit down, please." spoke Albus Dumbledore to the room full of people.

The separate conversations happening between the various members of the Order of the Phoenix ended as everyone moved to sit down at the long table.

Once they were all seated, Dumbledore spoke again.

"Severus informs me that he has some disturbing news to share with us tonight. Severus, if you would?"

Severus Snape stood and began.

"The Dark Lord has announced his desire to launch an attack on Azkaban in order to free all of his followers that are imprisoned there, and attempt to recruit the other prisoners to his cause. The attack is planned to take place two nights from now."

"Will he go after Harry?" asked Dumbledore.

"He is the main target." replied Snape.

That got the reaction that Dumbledore had expected.

The arrest and imprisonment of Harry Potter eight months ago for the murder of Luna Lovegood was still a very sore point, and one that caused divisions across the whole wizarding community. For the most part the populace believed Harry to be guilty; however there were small pockets of supporters for him.

Nymphadora Tonks pointed out that no one at the trial bothered to question Harry with veritaserum. When she was reminded that it was against the law to dose people under the age of seventeen with veritaserum, Tonks replied that people under the age of seventeen were not supposed to be put on trial before the entire Wizengamot, and they certainly were not supposed to be imprisoned in Azkaban.

Many people chose to ignore her when she pointed that out.

Alastor Moody, it seemed, was ultimately undecided when it came to Harry's guilt, but he did let it be known that it was his opinion that "If he's gone dark, he's been driven to it."

Dumbledore didn't like to think much on that point, because if it was true, then he himself was one of the biggest driving forces, what with placing him in the care for his abusive relatives and constantly failing to do what is right by him.

The most noticeable division had been amongst the students at Hogwarts, who had now divided themselves into three groups over the issue.

The first group was the obvious one, and the largest, those who believed that Harry had turned dark. Spearheaded by Ron Weasley, his sister Ginny and Neville Longbottom, this group comprised of most of the students from three of the four Hogwarts school houses.

The second group consisted entirely of Slytherin students and their sole purpose was to keep stirring the cauldron, as it were. Students like Draco Malfoy simply relished the strife that Harry's arrest was causing amongst the other students. They also took delight in the fact that it was their Head of House, Professor Snape, who had discovered Harry at the scene of the crime.

The third group called themselves the "Protection Assemblage" (or "P.A." for short, leading Dumbledore to guess that privately it stood for "Potter's Army", an obvious renaming of the former group "Dumbledore's Army") and they rallied around one student; Hermione Granger, whom many believed to be the one person who really knew Harry Potter, the person, rather than the "Boy-Who-Lived" persona that had been generated by the media and the Ministry.

This was the only group whose members were all known to Dumbledore by name, the most notable being the ones who had spoken up in Harry's defence during his trial, but there were a good thirty others.

It is needless to say that this group was completely ostracised by the rest of the school, so much so that they had now all removed themselves from their individual houses and now spent their free time in the Room of Requirement, within which Dumbledore presumed they had their own setup of common room and dormitories. No amount of requests or threats from the teachers could convince them to give up this arrangement. They emerged to attend classes, and even then they travelled in groups of no less than five. The rest of the time they were in the Room of Requirement. They even refused to come down to eat in the Great Hall with the rest of the student body, refused to study in the school library, and not one of them had attended a single Quidditch match or Hogsmeade trip.

This behaviour had begun three days after Harry's trial. Hermione had been in a thoroughly miserable mood as she sat in the Great Hall using her fork to push her dinner around her plate without really eating anything when Ginny Weasley had snapped at her, telling her, quite loudly, to "quit acting like Potter's widow."

Hermione had taken one look at Ginny before telling her to "Go off" (or words to that effect that had caused Professor McGonagall to take ten points from Gryffindor.)

Of course at that point the famous Weasley temper had bubbled to the surface as Ginny saw red. Her brother quickly added his two knuts' worth, and Neville waded in after him. Hermione was not alone, however, and her two dorm mates, Lavender and Parvati were surprisingly quick to back her up, even though the pair had never exactly seen eye to eye with her on many issues before. This of course, caused things to escalate, given how Ron was still of the impression that Lavender was his girlfriend and tried to order her to be on his side. Lavender then made their break-up indisputable in a very painful way, one which had both McGonagall and Snape issuing her with detentions, not that they were heard as Ginny had returned fire with a bat bogey hex. Things had only escalated from that point as Parvati trained her wand on Ginny as Hermione performed the counter-spell on Lavender. Neville aimed a hex at Parvati, but Seamus and Dean were ready for it. More Gryffindor students piled in and were quickly joined by various Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. Many Slytherins added themselves into the fray simply to stir up more trouble.

In the end, Ron, Neville, Ginny, Lavender, Seamus, Hannah Abbott, Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillan, Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson and about thirty others had to spend the night in the Hospital Wing. All four houses were in negative numbers in terms of House Points and just about every student was in detention for the next month.

By the time those detentions were done, Hermione, Lavender, Parvati, Seamus, Dean, Katie Bell, and Colin and Dennis Creevey, as well as a few of their siblings had renounced their membership to Gryffindor House, citing there being too much short-sightedness, big headedness and close-mindedness for them to remain in the so-called "House of the Brave."

Padma Patil also renounced Ravenclaw, stating that there was too much ignorance and far too much faith in authority in the so-called "House of the Wise."

And Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott and Justin Finch-Fletchley renounced Hufflepuff, citing that the so-called "House of the Loyal" were too easily misled by others, and that there was a reason that Hufflepuffs were widely considered to be "A load of old duffers" by most of the rest of the school.

None of this had gone down well at all, though the Slytherins had once again taken much delight in the situation.

Or at least they had until Susan had asked Hermione in a loud voice why Slytherin was supposed to be the house of the cunning when it seemed to be home to the arrogant and the conceited. Draco Malfoy's response to this was to fire a curse at her, though Susan easily blocked it with a shield charm and used his behaviour to prove her point; no cunning, just "How dare you insult me? Take that."

Draco lost twenty points from Slytherin and earned another two days detention. Dumbledore was of the belief that had the spell hit Susan then Draco would have spent a month in the Hospital Wing only if he was lucky.

The Professors in charge of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had, of course, tried to dissuade the group from their chosen course of action, but they refused to change their minds.

When asked why they were so determined to do this, it was Padma who answered "We turned to Harry for help last year and he gave it. War is coming and so far Harry is the only person who has shown us how to survive it."

Susan then added "It's because of Harry that I knew how to perform a shield charm, not a teacher of Hogwarts. Maybe you ought to think on that, rather than what House we do or do not want to be in."

Within a week the size of that group has increased to include Vicky Frobisher, Demelza Robbins, Ritchie Coote, Jimmy Peakes, Natalie Macdonald, and Emma Dobbs of Gryffindor, Lisa Turpin, Su Li, Kevin Entwhistle, Stewart Ackerly and Orla Quirke of Ravenclaw, Wayne Hopkins, Lilith Moon, Sally-Anne Perks, Eleanor Branstone, Laura Madley, Rose Zeller, Leanne Simmonds, Owen Cauldwell, Herbert Fleet and Malcolm Preece of Hufflepuff, as well as a handful of others, mostly their siblings.

It was highly noteworthy that, with the exceptions of Leanne, Vicky, Natalie, Jimmy, and Lisa, most of that group were Muggleborn, as were Hermione, Justin, Colin and Dennis.

Just a few days ago, McGonagall had managed to get a hold of Hermione and ask her exactly why she thought Harry was innocent. Hermione's reply had comprised of two simple points; one: it was Snape who found Harry at the scene of the crime. Harry supposedly then managed to give Snape the slip, only to be caught ten minutes later, sitting in the library trying to finish his Transfiguration homework. To Hermione something there did not add up. Two: why Luna?

Why Luna indeed.

As far as Dumbledore was concerned, that was the only thing that did not make sense. If Harry had joined Voldemort, surely the Dark Lord would have had Harry assassinate one of the teachers at the school, or a member of the Order, or perhaps kill a few Muggleborns. On the other hand, had Harry been driven to darkness, surely then he would have lashed out against one of those who pushed him towards it, like Draco Malfoy, or someone from the Ministry.

That the victim was Luna made no sense, but then Dumbledore refused to try and understand how Harry's mind must have worked that evening.

He looked at Snape, who had just finished giving his report.

"We must alert the Aurors and join them at Azkaban." said Dumbledore "Harry Potter must be prevented from falling into Voldemort's hands at all costs."

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><p><em>Drip. Drip. Drip.<em>

In his sleep, Harry Potter squirmed and tried to move away from the constant drops of liquid that leaked into his cell through a crack in the ceiling and onto his face.

Slowly Harry's eyes opened and he looked around blearily. One of the wardens had decided it would be funny to rob him of his glasses, and without them everything was a blur to Harry. His eyesight was even worse now that his magic was bound. He brought his hand up to his face and wiped some of the liquid off of his cheek. He held his fingers close to his eyes in order to examine the substance.

Whatever it was, it was dark green.

Harry wiped his hand on his ragged clothes and then looked around the cell once more. There was something on the floor by the door. He could not make out what it was, so he cautiously made his way over to get a better look.

It was his dinner; two thin slices of bread and half a glass of some green liquid, most likely today's nourishment potion that the guards begrudgingly gave the prisoners that they didn't die of starvation.

It also likely explained the strange liquid that had been dripping onto Harry's face this morning. It seemed whoever was in the cell above had not wanted his potion.

All the more for Harry then.

Harry swallowed his potion in three large gulps and gobbled up the two slices of bread greedily.

Both tasted horrible, but at least they made him feel a little better.

Meal time over, Harry returned to the stone slab that served as his bed. The dripping had stopped now, but a small puddle of green liquid had now pooled in the spot where Harry usually laid his head.

Harry laid himself face-down onto his bed and lowered his face to the puddle. He stuck out his tongue and dipped the tip of it into the liquid. It tasted like the nourishment potion, so Harry hurriedly lapped up every drop. In Azkaban, even the slightest chance of extra nourishment could not be wasted.

Now he felt stronger than he had in a long time.

Harry sat up and pressed his back against the cold stone wall and thought, though not of anything in particular. He used to think all the time about what had happened to him; why he was in Azkaban now, and how so many believed him guilty. He had given up that practice a long time ago, as thinking of the trial caused him to think about Hermione, Susan and all the others who believed in him, and thinking of them made him happy, and that attracted the Dementors.

Speaking of Dementors, Harry suddenly realised that he could not sense them.

He pushed himself from his seated position against the wall and made his way over to the door. He stood there and tried to get a grip of his surroundings.

With his magic bound all his senses were lessened, but in Azkaban one quickly learned to sense the presence of the Dementors.

There was nothing.

No chill in the air that caused your breath to become visible, no aura that seemed to freeze you to your bones, no wailing, screaming or pathetic moaning from the other prisoners that were being fed upon, and no rattling breath.

It seemed as though the Dementors had left this wing of Azkaban unguarded.

Most prisoners of Azkaban would have rejoiced with that news, but Harry had a question that immediately sprang to mind: Why?

Had Harry's hearing been any better, he would have detected the cacophony of sound coming from the west side of the prison that explained perfectly well why the Dementors had abandoned his cell block, but the fact was that Harry's hearing was not up to much, and he was located on the east side of the prison, so he had no way of knowing of the battle that was under way upon the western beach.

Harry returned to his stone bed and sat on it.

Not even a minute later, he became dimly aware of the sound of approaching footsteps, followed by a set of keys clinking as the door to his cell was unlocked.

Harry looked up as the door opened. He could make out several people standing there, but he couldn't make out who they were.

"Come on, Potter." said a voice that Harry recognised as belonging to Auror John Dawlish "We're getting you out of here before your master can get to you."

Harry was grabbed roughly by several pairs of hands and dragged from the cell.

As they marched him from his cell, Harry repeatedly stumbled.

"Move it Potter." growled Dawlish.

"I can't see very well." replied Harry, using his voice for the first time in a long time.

Seconds later Harry's senses improved threefold. Obviously one of the Aurors had decided to hit him with some kind of sensory charm.

Now Harry could hear the noise coming from the west; the screams, the shouts and the explosions.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Like you don't know." replied the Auror on Harry's right, whose name Harry did not know.

"If I knew, why would I ask?" asked Harry, who then received a hit to his head for speaking out of line.

The group rounded a corner and suddenly a jet of green light raced towards them. The Auror on Harry's left dropped dead.

Harry had chance to glimpse two Death Eaters standing in the middle of the corridor ahead. Neither was wearing their mask, allowing Harry to identify them as Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange. The three remaining Aurors threw Harry to the ground and immediately engaged the two Death Eaters in battle. Seconds later, Dawlish fell next to Harry with half of his face missing.

Repulsed, Harry pushed himself away from Dawlish and began a mad scramble down the corridor, away from the fight.

He had no idea where he was going; he had only ever seen his cell, and then only dimly.

Harry saw no one besides prisoners in their cells for a long time. There were no Dementors, no Aurors and no Death Eaters.

* * *

><p>The wind howled, thunder rumbled, the waves crashed against the shore, lightning flashed through the sky and rain hammered down as the battle raged on the rocky beach.<p>

The group of Dementors swarmed away from the light of Tonks' patronus, but Death Eaters were ready to take their place. Voldemort seemed to have brought his entire force to Azkaban in order to crush any resistance, and it seemed to be working.

The full, combined might of the Order of the Phoenix and the Ministry of magic (from its Aurors and Hit-Wizards to the run-of-the-mill Law Enforcement officers) had been present to counter Voldemort's attack, but they were rapidly weakening under the pressure of holding back the Death Eaters, Giants and Dementors.

Behind them the fortress of Azkaban was already burning. The dark hour of the failure of the light seemed to be upon them.

And it was into this chaos that Lord Voldemort's voice came, drowning out all other sound. The fighting stopped and the people from the Order and the Ministry began looking around for him, but he wasn't there. It quickly became apparent that the voice was merely a projection. They were all hearing a conversation that was occurring elsewhere, presumably within Azkaban itself. They were all shocked to hear the second voice, the voice of Harry Potter.

* * *

><p>Harry threw himself onto the ground with his hands covering the back of his head as the wall exploded. He was covered in chunks of stone and dust, but not really harmed. He pushed himself up and made his way cautiously towards the huge hole in the wall.<p>

For the first time in what felt like years Harry could see the outside world, but it was not a welcoming sight. The sky coated with thick, dark grey clouds that occasionally rumbled with thunder and light up in flashes of lightning. Rain fell heavily and the wind howled. Below the sea was black and churning violently. Harry looked down. The sea came right up to the wall of the prison below him. Strong waves hammered against it.

Harry leaned out and looked towards the west and saw the rocky beach where an epic battle seemed to be taking place. A swarm of black cloaked figures, who Harry took to be Death Eaters and Dementors, were battling it out against what Harry assumed to be the best that both the Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix could offer. There was probably anywhere up to three hundred people on each side, and Harry doubted that he would find a friend amongst any of them.

Suddenly a violent stabbing pain flared in the lightning-bolt shaped scar on Harry's forehead, causing him to cry out in agony. He bent double and clutched his face in his hands, his fingers massaging his forehead.

"Poor widdle baby Potter." came a mocking voice that was all too familiar to Harry.

Harry Potter turned and found his way back along the corridor blocked by the owner of the voice, Bellatrix Lestrange, arguably one of Voldemort's best Death Eaters. With her were other notorious Death Eaters, Lucius Malfoy, Antonin Dolohov, Peter Pettigrew and Severus Snape.

But most important of all was Lord Voldemort, who had come for Harry himself.

From the moment Voldemort began speaking, those fighting outside heard every word, though Harry could not know that.

"Well, well, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, how that mighty have fallen, eh? Tell me, how have you enjoyed your stay in Azkaban?"

Harry said nothing.

Voldemort smiled sinisterly "How does it feel Harry, to know that the entire world has turned against you?"

"Funnily enough, I'm rather used to it." replied Harry "The world has a habit of turning its back on me, and I think that you can thank your buddies Malfoy and Snape here for contributing to much of that."

"Ah, yes, that's right." said Voldemort "This happened during your second year at Hogwarts didn't it? Back when everyone seemed to think that you were the heir of Slytherin."

"Actually it happened first in my first year." replied Harry "When I snuck out at night to help someone who at the time I thought of as a friend, and Lucius' son squealed, losing me fifty house points."

Voldemort chuckled "Yes, that's right. I remember dear old Minerva ranting about it as I listened through Quirrel's turban. And then there was your fourth year, wasn't there? When everyone believed that you entered your name into the Tri-Wizard Tournament. What a fun year that was. And then your fifth year, when everyone thought you to be a liar for announcing my return to the world. I imagine that this year you were prepared for it."

"I was, as a matter of fact." said Harry "At first I was a little surprised at what had happened, but to be honest it makes perfect sense. After all, the world has tried every other angle to make be out to be deranged, so the next logical attempt had to be framing me for murder. How was it accomplished, if you don't mind my asking?"

Harry had a strong feeling that he was about to die, and strangely enough he was okay with it. Perhaps he had just come to accept the inevitable; it certainly helped him to keep calm now.

Voldemort laughed "Well, who am I to deny a dead man his final wish. Very well, I'll tell you. It was quite simple, really. All it took was a simple dose of Polyjuice Potion, I'm sure you've heard of it."

"Ah, that explains it." said Harry "Would I be correct in assuming that it was Malfoy Jr. who carried out the deed?"

"Who else?" replied Voldemort.

Harry gave a nod "And of course it was dear old Snape here who "discovered" me at the scene of the crime, and with Draco wearing my face, a simple pensieve memory was all it took for Dumbledore to believe my guilt."

"Correct." said Voldemort "And with the world once again believing every world that tumbles out of the old fool's mouth…"

"… I could've sworn a vow on my magic that I did not kill Luna and still have ended up here." finished Harry.

"Very good, Harry. You'd have made an excellent Auror with reasoning like that."

Despite the situation, Harry led out a laugh "Yeah, right. Like I'd want to waste my time working for the Ministry of Muppets."

"You realise that I am here to kill you, don't you Harry Potter."

"Yes, I realise it." said Harry "And to be honest, I'm now rather looking forward to leaving this violent cycle of physical abuse and emotional turmoil that we call life."

Voldemort raised his wand and pointed it directly at Harry's chest, but the spell didn't come. Instead Voldemort gave Harry a way out.

"I offered you a chance to join me once, Harry Potter. Do you remember? Back when we met in front of the Mirror of Erised. I know that you are a powerful Wizard, and I offer you that chance again. Will you take it?"

Harry's green eyes studied Voldemort's face for a few long moments before he gave his reply.

"As far as I'm concerned Tom, if you want the world as badly as you seem to, then you can have it. But you'll have to do so without me. I'm tired of it, and I'm done with it."

"Very well. Goodbye, Harry Potter."

"Goodbye Tom."

"_Avada Kedavra!_"

The jet of green light left Voldemort's wand and slammed into Harry's chest. Harry dropped to the ground, lifeless. But as he fell, he went slightly backwards, towards the hole in the wall. His body landed with a soft thump, rolled a tiny bit and then slid through the hole and down, down into the churning sea below.

When the spell hit Harry, Voldemort gave a loud gasp and fell to his knees. The Death Eaters immediately rushed to his side, but he had his eyes on Harry and watched as his body slid from view.

"Bellatrix, send them the message." said Voldemort.

Bellatrix made her way over to the hole in the wall and looked down. She saw no sign of the body. She took her wand and aimed it up at the sky.

"_Morsmordre!"_

The Dark Mark of Lord Voldemort, a glowing green skull with a serpent for its tongue appeared in the sky.

Bellatrix smiled and turned away from it.

"We must leave." announced Voldemort, surprising the others.

"But my Lord," said Lucius "Our victory is near at hand. We are close to crushing all those who stand before us."

"No," said Voldemort "no. We shall leave. They heard all that I told him. They know now that he was innocent. I wish them to suffer with that knowledge. We leave now."

And so they did.

And so did all those down on the battlefield, though it was a mystery how the Giants disappeared. Must have been some kind of port key. The Dementors just flew off.

The Order and the Aurors had heard everything; the truth about Harry's innocence and about Luna's murder, they had heard Harry's calm acceptance of his death. They heard him reject both Voldemort and the Wizarding World as a whole.

They had heard his death.

Now they were left on the rocky beach, becoming drenched by the torrential rain and the spray of the sea, chilled to the bone by the biting wind, and bathed in the green light of the huge Dark Mark that now hung in the blackened sky above, mocking them and their failure.

They had been wrong, very wrong, and rather than kill them, Tom Riddle wanted them to suffer with the knowledge that the Wizarding World had once again sent the wrong person to Azkaban.

* * *

><p>Harry Potter's body sank below the churning waves, and a slight current pulled him further out to see. The light from the Dark Mark in the sky above caused the water to glow with a green hue.<p>

And as he sank a little deeper, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around him to hold him tightly.

There was a swish of a powerful tail, and the body of Harry Potter was carried out to sea.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry it's been so long, but there's Chapter 2. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it rolls the plot along as necessary.**

**The truth is out, but at what cost? How will the world react to this latest series of events? And who has Harry's body?**

**Find out in Chapter 3, on its way soon.**

**For those wondering about the hearing Voldemort's voice thing, its Voldemort's way of taunting his opponents, and is rather like what he does during the Battle of Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows.**


	3. Awakening

**No, I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, though I do own copies of all the books and films. The people who do own the Harry Potter franchise are JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros. and a few other publishers. Thank you to JKR for letting us play about in the sandbox of the Wizarding World.**

**Important A/N****: We are going to be following Harry first, which means that we will have to wait a bit for Hermione and others to come back into things. I only hope that this will work.**

* * *

><p><span>Harry Potter and the Court of Magical Brethren.<span>

Chapter 3: Awakening.

The gentle sound of water ripples breaking against a solid surface was the first sound that he heard upon regaining consciousness.

Harry Potter's eyes opened slowly, and he blinked a couple of times to bring the world into focus. Once it had, he realised that he was lying on his left side, staring at a wall of solid rock.

Confused, he tried to recall how he had gotten here. He recollected on being in Azkaban, he recalled the guards marching him along a corridor, and he remembered the ambush by the Lestrange brothers that saw Harry making a desperate attempt to flee.

Then what?

Then Voldemort came. They spoke, and Voldemort killed him.

Was that right, though? Harry certainly did not feel dead.

Perhaps the killing curse had failed to kill him, much as it had done when Voldemort first used it against Harry as a baby. That time Voldemort had been ripped from his body and forced to live in a wraith-like state for thirteen years. Had that happened again?

Harry rather hoped so; he suspected that Voldemort would just keep on coming after him otherwise.

But that still left the question; where was he?

He breathed in deeply through his nose and then summoned the energy to roll onto his back.

Good God that hurt!

Every single fibre of his being seemed to scream out in agony as he forced himself onto his back, but he still managed it. Harry lay there, quite still, eyes shut as he awaited the pain to subside. In all honesty, he had felt worse (Voldemort's cruciatus curse, for example), but there was no point in over exerting himself right now.

After a minute or two, Harry opened his eyes again and stared upwards.

There was a load of rock there too.

Rocks for walls and rocks for a ceiling.

Perhaps he was in a cave.

But where might this cave be? Harry spent the next few minutes pondering that.

Were there any caves on the Island on which the prison of Azkaban sat? Harry didn't know the answer to that, but he supposed it was a possibility.

Yes, now that he thought about it that was the most plausible reasoning: Voldemort had hit him with the Killing Curse (which had not killed him), he had fallen through the giant hole in the wall and into the sea below, where he was thrown about a bit (which explained the pain that he was in) before being washed up inside this cave, where he had regained consciousness.

Satisfied with that explanation of his current situation, Harry decided to try and sit up.

Harry was prone to having the occasional bad idea, but he quickly decided that that one was the worst one ever.

After forcing himself halfway into a sitting position, he gave a cry of agony and collapsed onto his back again. Bad idea.

"You're awake." said a female voice.

Harry's head turned quickly to the right, his pain at doing so forgotten in light of the sight before him.

He was in a cave; it opened up towards the sea. Calm water drifted in through the opening and filled a deep pool, the surface of which sparkled in the sunlight that was being let in through the opening.

Harry's eyes, however, were drawn to the most beautiful female face that he could ever recall seeing; heart-shaped, with a cute nose, deep brown eyes and soft lips, framed by long, dark brown hair.

The rest of her was underwater.

She was smiling at him.

"I'm glad." she continued "Its five days since I found you. I was beginning to think that you would not wake."

"You found me?" Harry asked.

She nodded "Yes. There was a terrible storm, you see, and I found you in the water near an Island to the west. You were sinking, so I brought you here."

Harry's mind was filled with a thousand questions, but picked one of them to ask.

"And where is "here"?"

"An Island that your kind called Baltia," she replied "though it has been a long time since one of you has been here."

Despite having been in a part of the Wizarding World for five and a half years, Harry had never bothered to read about the mythologies of any civilisation (something which might have given him a new level of appreciation for the magical world), so he had no understanding as to the significance of Baltia. Had Hermione been there, she would have told him that Baltia was a vast legendary island of Roman mythology, said to be found in Northern Europe, where the waves of the sea deposited on its shoreline a substance known as amber, which the island's Germanic inhabitants supposedly used as fuel.

But Hermione was not there, so Harry was clueless.

"Right…" he said "Baltia… never heard of it."

"That's no surprise." she replied "Your kind is not exactly welcome in this place."

"Then why did you bring me here?" Harry enquired.

She gave him a slightly strange look before replying "Compassion."

"Fair enough. Do you have a name?"

"Halophila." she answered "And yours?"

"Harry. Harry Potter."

"Well, Harry Potter, it was nice to meet you, but I believe it is time for you to rest again. Rest well; I think that tomorrow I will be asked to take you from this cave to meet with some others of my kind."

Harry nodded and her she turned and swam away, giving Harry a view of her Dolphin-like tail.

So she was a siren mermaid. Well that explained why she didn't leave the water.

Harry returned to his former position, sprawled on his back, staring up at the rock face above and pondered his lot in life. His first year of life escaped his memory, though he imagined that he must have been happy. Between the ages of fifteen months and eleven years, he had lived exclusively within the Muggle-world, and that time had been horrible; his days consisting of near ritualistic of abuse and neglect on behalf of his aunt, uncle and cousin. Then came his time in the wizarding world which had been fun at points, but that was repeatedly torn apart by torment, ridicule and the occasional life-or-death situation that made one really doubt the truth in the words "Hogwarts is the safest place in Britain." And that time had, of course, come to an end in a rather devastating way that was little more than a veritable firestorm of unfounded accusations and betrayal.

Harry wondered if he would find a new home here with the Halophila and her kind. Would it be a case of "fourth time lucky", or would this end in an explosion of catastrophe too?

Well, only time would tell. In the meantime, he decided that he might as well take Halophila's advice and rest for a while. Their conversation could not have lasted for more than a few minutes, but Harry found himself feeling oddly drained.

Then again, it's not as if he was in perfect health, and he had been attacked by Lord Voldemort before being buffeted about in the middle of the North Sea after all.

Harry rested his head against the rock beneath him and closed his eyes.

He was asleep within seconds.

* * *

><p><em>Flames raced through the streets, consuming everything in their path. A third of the buildings were already burnt to the ground. The mountain in the distance was spewing out great plumes of ash and huge fireballs the size of houses. Elsewhere waters surged in great waves, destroying everything that stood on the coast. Wind roared in the air as it spiralled around in the form of seven great tornadoes. The people of the land were screaming in fear and pain; Armageddon was upon them; their world was being destroyed by forces that they were too ignorant to understand. It was a fate that they had brought upon themselves, and it was one that others would receive. For the good of the world, this would happen again.<em>

_A series of massive tremors shook the land. Many of the buildings that still stood buckled and collapsed. Beneath them the land did the same. Many great cracks appeared in the stone, but one in particular split the land clean into two halves. The volcano collapsed in on itself in an implosion of molten rock as water from the sea surged to fill the great divide. The other cracks grew larger and the land split into seven parts, each one crumpling to vanish below the waves._

_The whole place was gone. They had paid dearly for what they had done._

_And for the good of the world, this would happen again._

* * *

><p>Harry felt something cold and wet against his cheek, and a voice permeated into his mind "Come on, Harry. It's time to wake up."<p>

His eyes opened and he found himself once again looking at the face of Halophila. It was her hand that was on his cheek.

Immediately he decided to not tell her about his dream.

He took a few breaths and then asked "Is it morning already?"

"Morning?" asked Halophila, sounding slightly incredulous "It's long past midday and there are only a few more hours to go until the sun will set."

Harry moved to sit up, but his body screamed out in pain.

"Here, drink this." said Halophila, handing Harry a large sea shell that contained a strange dark-red liquid. Harry's experience with the healing potions produced by wizards ensured that he gulped the liquid down without hesitance.

He was surprised. Not only did the liquid make him feel a thousand times better, it also tasted delightful; something that wizards had yet to perfect when it came to their healing potions (though oddly enough there were plenty of poisons that were reported to have an enjoyable flavour).

"That's nice." said Harry "What is it?"

"Just an elixir to soothe aches and pains." replied Halophila "It's mainly from the bark of a white willow tree, though we add a few other things to make it stronger and taste nicer. Now come on, the others want to meet you."

With that, Halophila turned around in the water and began to swim towards the cave's exit. Harry looked and saw a narrow stone ledge on which he could exit.

Outside the cave, Harry stood on top of a large rock and looked around. In front of him the sea stretched out beyond the horizon. To his right, the sea met the cliff-face in which the cave had been carved; he could just make out what appeared to be entrances to several smaller caves.

To his left, the rocks continued for a good distance. Halophila was making her way through the shallows there, so Harry began scrambling over the rocks to follow her. It was tiring work, and every so often Harry would notice a few small orange stones resting amongst the large black and grey boulders. He wondered what they were.

Soon the boulders gave way to a sandy beach which bore all the signs of being battered by the storm nearly a week before. Seagulls marched to and fro, pecking at the washed up kelp and sea shells that lay scattered about, and every-so-often there was a piece of driftwood or a plastic bag or bottle, signs that human settlements were not too far away.

And everywhere he looked, Harry still saw those small orange stones. He bent down and picked one up. Its surface was smooth; probably from being battered around in the sea. As he held it up to the light of the sky, thoughts of precious gemstones, such as rubies and sapphires came to his mind.

"Harry, keep up." Halophila called to him.

Harry turned and saw her bobbing in the water about sixty feet head of him. He pocketed the stone and made his way along the beach after her. As they continued on, the land to Harry's left began to change. Instead of a towering cliff-face, there were soon a good number of sand-dunes. The ones nearest were covered in European beachgrass and common glasswort. Further back, the dunes began to level out and other plant species, such as heather and sea lavender. In the distance there was a scattering of a few trees; white birch and European rowan. Had Hermione been present, she would have pointed out that what Harry was seeing was something known as "psammosere succession", wherein an ecological community was undergoing a predictable series of changes as a new habitat was colonised, and that this was evidence that the island was very slowly expanding as more and more sand was washed up on the beach over time. But again, Hermione was not with Harry, so he remained clueless. He did think that the flowers blossoming on the heathers were pretty, though.

Soon they came upon a wide river, which Halophila began to swim along, so Harry followed along on the bank. Around the first bend in the river, Harry came to a stop. Resting on the riverbank were six harbour seals. He wracked his brains trying to remember what little he had learned about wild animals in school, searching for that all important piece of information; were seals dangerous, friendly or just prone to fleeing?

He couldn't remember, but now that he thought about it, seals weren't really something he learnt about in primary school.

Halophila had stopped swimming again, and had turned to look at him with a curious expression on her face.

Well, there really was only one way to find out if they were safe or not, so Harry approached them cautiously. Each one turned to stare at him as he passed, but beyond that they never battered an eyelid. It seemed that they were safe.

"_Or just not hungry right now."_ a voice in the back of Harry's mind stated.

_Hunger._ Now that he thought about it, Harry was rather hungry. He wondered if there was any food about. Perhaps he could try catching a fish later.

And then another thought occurred to him. Here he was, on an island that was miles away from civilisation, in the company of a Siren Mermaid, a creature long believed to lure sailors to their deaths with their beautiful singing.

And he did not even have his wand.

Of course, had Halophila actually _wanted_ to kill and eat him, she had had him alone in that cave for nearly a week, and for most of that time he had been unconscious…

That didn't stop him from picking up a large stick when he spotted it, though. He'd had far too many bad experiences with magical creatures to continue on when completely unarmed. It wasn't a wand, but he could give a foe a good whack with it, if nothing else.

However, moving to pick up the stick brought him beneath a large Oak tree, and he did not notice the long, camouflaged tail that hung down from the tree and curled on the ground. Or, at least, he didn't notice it until it wrapped itself twice around both of his legs and hoisted him into the air, where he dangled upside down.

"A human." hissed a female voice.

Harry blinked dazedly a few times before turning his gaze higher up the tree. The upper body of a human female lowered itself down to stare at him. Harry swallowed nervously as she came face to face with him. Her face could have been beautiful were it not for the scowl that marred it. And there was the fact that her eyes were yellow, with slit pupils. Oh, and she had fangs like needles too. Those were pretty unnerving.

"Hey, put him down!" shouted Halophila from below, having apparently realised Harry's predicament.

The female sent one look at her and then rose back up into the leafy canopy of the tree. The tail retained its hold of Harry and dragged him up too.

In the topmost part of the tree, Harry remained dangling upside down. Now though, he had a better view of his captor. Whereas Halophila was human from the waist up and a dolphin from the waist down, this creature was human from the waist up, and, quite clearly, a serpent from the waist down.

It was typical of Harry's luck, really; he'd been worrying about being eaten by the fish-lady, and was instead going to be eaten by a snake-lady.

She was staring at him with her yellow, reptilian eyes. Then, from between her lips, a long, thin, forked black tongue poked out. It flicked up and down in the air, and then vanished back inside her mouth.

That was downright creepy!

Her mouth opened and she began to speak, though her lips did not seem to match her words.

"Humans should not be here. Filthy, traitorous scummy things they are. Not to be trusted, no. Should kill it, I should. Kill it and eat its heart."

She looked pretty hungry, too.

"Don't." said Harry, who was unable to think of anything else to say.

It seemed to work though, as she paused and blinked, before locking her eyes onto his.

"You understand me?" she asked.

Harry nodded. From below Halophila shouted up again. Harry hoped that his being able to understand this creature's language would aid him in getting away from it, as he doubted Halophila would be much help; a dolphin tail instead of legs weren't exactly a useful thing for climbing trees after all.

"But you are a human." stated the creature before him "How can a human possibly understand me?"

Harry wondered that too, until it clicked; given how this creature was part serpent, it was entirely possible that they were currently communicating using parseltongue; the language of the snakes.

"I speak parseltongue." Harry answered her "It is a rare ability that very few of my kind possess."

She eyed him carefully, before asking him "And what brings you here, human?"

"I'm not too sure." answered Harry, deciding that it was best to be truthful "It had something to do with that siren down there."

"And do you mean us harm?"

"No. No harm at all."

She watched him for a few more moments, before finally Harry found himself being lowered back towards the ground.

"Very well," she spoke "I will let you go. But trust me when I say, human, that I shall be watching you very closely."

"Oh, I believe you." said Harry as he was placed on the ground, and he did.

The tail uncoiled itself from around his legs, and Harry scrambled away as quickly as possible. Halophila was sitting on the bank watching him as he ran towards her, his concerns about her intentions all gone.

Harry collapsed on the bank and lay there panting for a few moments before summoning up the willpower to ask "What the hell is she?"

"Her name is Natrix, and she is a Lamia."

Harry looked back towards the tree, where he could just make out Natrix's tail hanging down against the thick trunk.

A massive shiver ran through his body. Given a choice of maybe being eaten by a group of sirens and most probably being eaten by a Lamia, Harry decided to take his chances with Halophila.

"Are you alright?" asked Halophila.

"Apart from having the crap scared out of me, yes." answered Harry.

Halophila tilted her head to one and gave him a questioning look before saying "I am not familiar with this word "crap" that you use. Tell me, what does it mean?"

Harry stared at her for a few moments, trying to puzzle that one out. Did he want to explain things like that to a siren? Finally he decided to just go for it.

"It means sh- excrement." he nearly said "shit", but had a feeling that she wouldn't understand that would either.

Thankfully she did seem to understand the word "excrement", but did then comment "You don't appear to have excreted."

"Um… what?"

"You said that you had had the excrement scared out of you…" she began, but Harry cut her off "It's just a figure of speech."

She nodded and then turned and slipped back into the water "Are you ready to carry on?"

Harry gave a nod and got back to his feet. He sent one last look back towards the oak tree where he knew Natrix the Lamia still lurked, and then hurriedly followed on as Halophila resumed her task of leading him on further up river.

Their little "excrement" misunderstanding might have seemed a little pointless, but it did bring a key question to Harry's mind; how was he able to speak with Halophila? Natrix had been surprised when he understood every word coming out of her mouth, and yet Halophila hadn't so much as batted an eyelid at the fact that he was able to converse with her easily. Was she speaking English? Or was he speaking Mermish and hearing it as English, like he did with Parseltongue? He certainly could not recall ever being able to understand Mermish before now. If he had, he suspected that figuring out the clue to the second task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament two and a half years ago would have been a lot easier.

Maybe it was one of those abilities he had that remained dormant until arising at the most opportune moment.

Nah, that couldn't be it.

It was definitely something to ask about later, though.

"Come on Harry. It's just around this bend."

Halophila's words brought Harry out of his musings, and he turned to watch as she raced on upstream before disappearing around the bend.

He gave chase and, around the corner, he came to a sudden stop.

One word escaped his lips at the sight before him.

"Wow."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: There it is; Chapter 3. I hope that you enjoyed it, because writing it has been a bit of a pain. Hopefully after the next chapter or two, I can get the actual plot going. For anyone concerned, yes I have taken a couple of liberties with the two mythical creatures appearing in this chapter and yes, I will do so with others, after all JKR changed what Selkies and Veela/Vila are to match her own ends, so I can make alterations too. The reason Halophila is part dolphin rather than part fish is because I see the siren mermaids as being in the more traditional view of mermaids; in fact they are decribed as being so in Harry Potter-related sources. However all traditional Mermaids are shown to have tails that propel them with an up-down motion, something that occurs only with whales and dolphins, as fish use a side-to-side motion, as the selkies are shown to do in the movie version of Goblet of Fire. Also, don't worry; it might seem like a plot error, but Harry's continued ability to understand parseltongue will be explained, hopefully in the next chapter.**

**In case anyone is wondering, I've placed the legendary Island of Baltia to the west of the Jutland Peninsula in the North Sea, where Alexander von Humboldt reckoned it to be. And I've placed Azkaban Island to the north-west of this (as Azkaban's location is not specifically stated in the books).**

**Oh, and there are fifty house points up for grabs for whoever can tell me where I got the names for Halophila and Natrix from.**


	4. The Nymphs

**No, I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, though I do own copies of all the books and films. The people who do own the Harry Potter franchise are JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros. and a few other publishers. Thank you to JKR for letting us play about in the sandbox of the Wizarding World.**

* * *

><p><span>Harry Potter and the Court of Magical Brethren.<span>

Chapter 4: The Nymphs

Sitting on the bank opposite them was a large house, the size of which would have put any mansion of wizards to shame. Several large trees grew around it, and flowers grew before it.

"Is that where we're going?" asked Harry.

"Yes, Harry." replied Halophila "That is the House of the Nymphs. There you are to meet with the five Queens; Argyra of the Naiads, Phigalia of the Dryads, Adrasteia of the Oreads, Levant of the Sylphs and Jerisavlja of the Veela."

Harry was quite surprised to hear that last one "Veela? There are Veela here?"

"Oh, yes. They are the Nymphs of fire. The Naiads are the Nymphs of the rivers; the Dryads of the Nymphs of the trees; the Oreads are Nymphs of the mountains and the Sylphs are the Nymphs of the wind."

"Are they elementals, then?" he asked. He had read a couple of passing references to elementals when studying for the tri-wizard tournament, particularly fire and wind elementals when looking for ways to fight the dragon, and water elementals when looking for ways to breathe underwater for an hour."

"Yes, they are." replied Halophila, then her face fell "Or, they were."

"_Were_?" asked Harry, but Halophila shook her head and swam on, refusing to say any more.

Soon they came to a stone bridge that crossed the river. Two female figures stood there. They appeared to be waiting for him.

"Claea, Kleodora, this is Harry." said Halophila, making introductions from the water "Harry, this is Claea the Oread and this is Kleodora the Naiad."

"Nice to meet you." offered Harry in greeting, but neither of the Nymphs returned it.

The one introduced as Kleodora turned to Halophila and said "The Queens have ordered that this human have an armed escort in our home."

"An armed escort?" asked Halophila "Why? He is unarmed."

"That may be, but the Queens demand it." replied Claea before turning to Harry "Come with us. The Queens desire to meet you."

That each of them bore a sword in a scabbard at their side was enough to convince Harry to not argue. He looked to Halophila, who gave him a nod, and then turned and followed the two Nymphs across the stone bridge.

Closer to the house, Harry got a better look at it. The stone walls were the same colour as the mountain that rose behind it. Ivy and other climbing plants grew over the walls, giving it colour, and ornate wooden and stone carvings added to the beauty.

Harry was led up a short path to the front of the structure, where a pair of wooden doors the featured ornate carvings of various animals and birds stood closed. Two Naiads stood guard on the left, and two Oreads stood guard on the right. Each one held a large wooden spear that was tipped with a pointed flint.

As they got closer, Kleodora said to Harry in a quiet voice "Watch yourself when you get inside. The guards will not hesitate to skewer you like a pig should you give them cause."

Harry nodded as they approached the doors. The guards eyed him suspiciously before opening the doors. Harry gave the guards a nod of respect and thanks, but none of them gave any indication that they had noticed.

Inside they found themselves in a large, resplendent hall that was far grander than anything Hogwarts had to offer. Statues and tapestries that obviously depicted scenes and figures from their history lined the walls. Two grand, curving staircases at either end to the hall led to upper levels. Resplendent rugs weaved of materials unknown to Harry decorated the floor. And everywhere there were Nymphs, all going about their daily business.

All of them stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at Harry as Kleodora and Claea led him through the hall and towards the staircase on the right. The large doors were shut behind them, and Harry looked over his shoulder at them, only to realise that two of the door guards had followed them; one Naiad and one Oread.

Looking around him, Harry could make out which Nymphs were which. All Naiads looked alike, and wore dresses of varying shades of blue. All Oreads were alike in looks as well, and dressed in dresses of earthy colours. The silvery-haired Veela Harry recognised, having seen them before at the Quidditch World Cup, and they wore dresses in colours resembling heat and flame. The Dryads were obviously the ones in the green dresses, and that left the Sylphs to be the ones in the silvery dresses. Simple enough, but Harry wondered how easy it would be to tell individuals of each kind from each other.

Once they had reached the top of the staircase, Harry was led along a well-lit corridor. Here too the wall was covered with tapestries depicting what seemed to be moments from history. One in particular caught Harry's eye. In it a castle that very much resembles Hogwarts castle appeared to be under siege. An assortment of magical peoples, most of which seemed to be Nymphs were defending it, along with an assortment of other magical creatures, including Unicorns, Hippogriffs and, surprisingly, what appeared to be Trolls, Giants and Dwarves. The attackers seemed to be wizards, and they appeared to be in the company of Goblins and, unless Harry was very much mistaken, Werewolves.

If Harry was correct, and the tapestry did indeed depict what he thought it depicted, then he had his answer about why there seemed to be no love for humans in this place.

One of the guards nudged him none-too gently in the back with the blunt end of her spear, and Harry realised that he had been so enthralled with the picture that he had spotted to stare at it.

Muttering a quick apology, he turned away from the painting and once again continued following Kleodora and Claea along the corridor, with the two guards following on behind.

About halfway along the corridor from the staircase, Kleodora and Claea stopped and opened a pair of doors. Harry followed them in. Most of this room was empty, but for a long table, behind which stood five chairs fit for royalty. The floor appeared to Harry's untrained eye to be made of black marble. All four walls of the room were each covered in five tapestries; one bearing a Swan on water, one of a group of songbirds in a tree, one of a phoenix with its winds spread and surrounded by flames, one of a mountain with a giant eagle sat upon it, and one of a falcon soaring through the air among clouds.

The doors behind Harry were closed and the two guards pushed him forward to the centre of the room. Meanwhile Kleodora and Claea went around the table and through a door in the wall on the opposite side of the room.

Harry turned to look at the two guards, who were now standing on either side of the doors through which they had entered, and were watching him intently.

Harry turned away from them and turned his attentions back to the tapestries, particularly the one of the Giant Eagle sitting upon a mountain top. He couldn't help but wonder if such a creature really existed. He'd never come across a mention of one in his Care of Magical Creatures textbooks, and Hagrid had certainly never mentioned such a creature.

His eyes drifted over to the tapestry next to it, the one which featured the phoenix surrounded by flames. Harry knew this creature to be real, for he had encountered one on several occasions. However, thinking of that phoenix brought Harry to thoughts of Dumbledore, and he didn't particularly want to think about that individual ever again. That fool had always insisted that Snape was trustworthy, and look where that had gotten them all.

Before his thoughts could get any darker, they were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. He turned and saw that both of the guards were now standing to attention. He turned back and saw that Kleodora and Claea had returned, accompanied by eighteen other Nymphs, all of whom were lining the wall behind the seats at the table, all standing to attention.

It was Kleodora who announced loudly "Announcing the five Queens; Argyra of the Naiads, Phigalia of the Dryads, Adrasteia of the Oreads, Levant of the Sylphs and Jerisavlja of the Veela."

At once all the Nymphs in the room broke into low bows. Remembering Kleodora's whispered words to behave, Harry too bowed low, fixing his eyes on the floor like the rest. Assuming that someone would say, well, something when it was time to stand upright again, Harry remained in his bow. He did not hear the sound of chairs being pulled out, which would indicate that the queens were moving to sit. Instead he heard five sets of footsteps coming closer.

They stopped just before him, and he swallowed nervously. Had he done something wrong already?

Finally a voice broke the silence.

"So, this is Halophila's human, is it?"

No one answered, and, despite being sure that it was a rhetorical question, Harry gave a quick nod.

"Stand up straight, human, so that we might see your face."

Slowly Harry stood upright, and brought his eyes up to gaze upon what surely were the fairest Nymphs of them all. The Nymph Queens seemed to be a bit older than the rest that Harry had seen, but that did not show too much physically. No, they seemed older, something in their eyes pointed to it, something about the aura that each gave off said that they had seen more years than any other in the house.

"Tell us," said the Nymph in the middle, the Naiad, who's voice pointed to her as being the only one to have spoken so far "why did you bow, human?"

It took Harry a moment or two to find his voice, but when it came to him he said "Excuse me if I am wrong, my lady, but I was informed that you five are Queens."

"That we are." answered the Sylph Queen from the Naiad's right.

"Then is it not courteous to bow to a Queen?" Harry asked.

The five Queens exchanged looks, before the Naiad Queen broke into a smile "A human who knows and exhibits courteousness, now there is a thing only to be believed when seen for oneself."

Harry got the distinct impression that her opinion of him, at least, had just gone up a few notches, but it was very clear that they were judging him.

"Halophila tells us," said the Dryad Queen "that she found you half dead floating through the sea."

"Um, yes. That sounds about right." replied Harry.

"Tell us how you came to be in the sea." said the Veela Queen. Harry could tell that that was not a request.

So he told them. He told them about Voldemort's attack on Azkaban, and how Voldemort himself cornered him and hit him with the killing curse.

"I have no idea how I survived that spell. As for my ending up in the sea, I suppose I fell backwards through the hole in the wall when I collapsed."

"You mentioned that this "Voldemort" person attacked you at Azkaban." said the Oread Queen "What is Azkaban?"

At this Harry got really uncomfortable, figuring that his answer would tarnish their opinion of him, but he could tell that it would not be a good idea to lie.

"It is a prison for Wizards." he answered.

"You're a prisoner?" asked the Naiad Queen.

"Um, a wrongly convicted prisoner." Harry offered, though tried to make it sound like he was not correcting her.

"And how did such a thing come to be?" asked the Naiad Queen.

So Harry told them. He told him about Voldemort's two double agents within the school, he told them about the Polyjuice potion and what it did, he told them about his being framed for the murder of one of his best friends, he told them of the show trial he received at the hands of the Ministry, but all that just led to more and more questions. Pretty soon he had told them all he knew about just who Voldemort was and what his ambitions were. He confessed the events of that Halloween night when he was just fifteen months old. He told them of Voldemort's return to power, and how the Ministry of Magic had refused to believe him for an entire year. Harry found that everything just seemed to spill out of him with ease, sometimes it seemed to take on a resemblance to a rant, but none of the Nymphs so much as batted an eyelid at his tone. It felt good to get it all off his chest. It felt good to speak about these things to someone who wasn't involved in them. And the questions still kept on coming. He explained about his previous show trial, he explained about the Dementor attack, he explained about Professor Umbridge and her attempts to silence him.

When he mentioned the blood-quill and what it did, the Dryad Queen surprised him by reaching out and grabbing his left hand. She lifted it towards her face to get a good look.

"What a ghastly punishment to inflict upon a child." she said as she examined the scarred words on the back of his hand. Her eyes moved to meet his "Did you receive any kind of apology when the truth came out."

Harry shook his head "Nothing. Umbridge was booted out of the school, pending an investigation. Seeing as she was present at my second trial, you can probably guess how that went."

"And the Ministry itself? Did they apologise?" asked the Naiad Queen.

"No." answered Harry "The whole thing was swept under the rug, didn't want to draw attention to it. Couldn't have themselves looking any worse than they already did. And the Headmaster just gave me a patronising pat on the head and sent me off home. After he told me the prophecy, of course."

"Prophecy?" questioned the Veela Queen.

Harry shrugged his shoulders and replied "Basically it states that someone would be born under specific circumstances, and they would be the only one with a chance to defeat Voldemort. Dumbledore got it into his head that that someone was me."

"They put you in prison without giving you a proper trial when you were named by prophecy to be the only one you could defeat their worst enemy?" asked the Naiad Queen.

Harry nodded.

The Dryad Queen turned away and beckoned for one of the other Dryads to come over.

"This is Dryope." said the Dryad Queen by way of introduction "She is well practiced in the arts of healing. Dryope, if you would."

Dryope took Harry's scarred hand in hers and examined it. "It will require a good bit of treating, but I'm sure I can remove them." she announced "Do you have any more scars? You mentioned the one you received on the night your parents were killed?"

Harry brought his right hand up to his forehead and pulled back his fringe to reveal the lightning-bolt shaped scar there. Having not seen himself in a mirror for a long time, he had no way of knowing that it had faded greatly.

Dryope took his face in her hands and pulled him lower so as to get a better look at it. She frowned as she ran her fingers over it.

"This scar was once a connection to great evil." she stated.

"Was?" asked Harry.

"Yes. Whatever it was, it is gone now."

"It was a connection to Voldemort's mind." explained Harry "I don't know how, but I used to see visions, especially when he was really happy or angry. I used to see him torturing and killing people, both his victims and his followers."

"Well that connection is most certainly gone." said Dryope, reassuringly "And I can get rid of the scar. Do you have any others? I believe that Halophila mentioned you had a few."

And so Harry showed them his scars; the one on his shoulder, where the tail of the Hungarian Horntail had struck him, the one on his arm where Pettigrew had cut him and the one higher up on his arm where the fang of the Basilisk had pierced it.

Dryope declared that she could easily get rid of them, but all the Nymphs seemed for more interested in how he got those scars, and Harry ended up going into great detail about his duel with the Basilisk and the memory of Tom Riddle within the Chamber of Secrets, about the fiasco that was the Tri-Wizard Tournament and his forced participation in it, the tale of the first task against the dragon, his encounter with the Selkies and Grindylows within the black lake, the trials of the maze and the resurrection of Lord Voldemort.

Finally the Naiad Queen held up her hand to silence him "Very well, young human. You have brought grave news with you, but it is more than we have heard in many a year. In exchange you may stay with us under our protection."

"Thank you." Harry managed to stammer out.

"Dryope, see that he is healed." said the Dryad Queen. Dryope nodded in answer and began to lead Harry from the room.

Kleodora and Claea were sent with them.

Once he was gone from the room, the Sylph Queen turned to the others and asked "Do we believe his stories?"

"I saw no lie in his eyes." answered the Oread Queen.

"Dryope will be able to discover if he spoke the truth or not." said the Dryad Queen.

"Is he what we need?" asked the Veela Queen.

"Oh yes," answered the Naiad Queen "He will fit the role quite nicely."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, because it was hell to write. Your questions will, of course, be answered in coming chapters. Just for the record, this story will look at many aspects of magic not usually delved in to, including its origin, and the origin of many of the magical creatures that inhabit the world. **

**Before anyone gets on their high horse about there being Nymphs, I would like to point out that Wood Nymphs (aka Dryads) are specifically referred to by Fleur Delacour in "Goblet of Fire" during the Yule Ball. Apparently they serenade the students of Beauxbatons as they eat at Christmas. Yes that will be looked into, as will the origin of House Elves (been done before, I know, but what the hell). Also, to me, Veela in the Harry Potter series are just like Nymphs, so I made them Fire Nymphs. I also wanted a Nymph to represent air and could not find one (because apart from the Dryads, all Nymphs mentioned seem to be associated with water, like the Naiads), so I went for a Sylph, which is usually describes as an air elemental with Fairy/Nymph-like qualities. I also realise that Oreads, though called Mountain Nymphs, are usually associated with trees that grow in the mountains, like Mountain Ash. I changed them to become the Earth Elemental because, although this story will include Dwarves, who are also Earth Elementals, I think that that has been done several times.**

**Also, if anyone can come up with a human/nymph/elf-like creature from mythology (with a source that I can use to verify it) that relates to snow, could you let me know? I've tried hard, but aside from one passing reference to a Snow Nymph that gave absolutely no details on it, the best I've been able to come up with are Snow Trolls and Frost Giants (yes, I intend to feature both in the storyline, but they don't fit with the role I need). Please don't suggest either the Yukki-ona or the Yama-uba of Japanese Folklore. I have considered both, but the fact that they are often referred to as spirits has made me not want to use them for the role (they might appear in their own right, though, should the story need them).**

**Oh yeah, also in answer the the questions that I gave to you at the end of the last chapter; Halophila is a genus of Seagrass that is made more significant by the fact that it is a preferred food of the Dugong. For those of you who are unaware, the Dugong is related to the Manatee. In fact the Dugong and the three species of Manatee (as well as the now sadly extinct Stellar's Sea Cow) make up the mammal group "Sirenia", which have that name because they are believed to be the origin of the Mermaid Myth. Natrix is the genus name of a group of snakes, including the Dice Snake, which occurs in Greece, among other places, and it is from the mythology of Ancient Greece that the Lamia comes.**

**Well done if you got that, and in case you can't tell, I spend too much time on Wikipedia :)**


	5. Author's Note

**Author's Note.**

Don't panic, this is not a message to tell you that I am abandoning this story, because I'm not.

I just wanted to alert all readers to the fact that this story is giving me a lot of trouble and is refusing to be written. I have much of the plot planned, it just seems that turning the plot plan into an effective story is going to take a while. I may yet have to go back and alter what has already been written in order to make things work better.

As such this story, as much as I hate to do it, is on a temporary hiatus until I can sort things out.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read and review, not only this story but my others as well, your support is very much appreciated.

Sprinter1988


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